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t ....i. -s-ott I..,, —- r • " *r ~a tj|l| HtH I "*~* I j I Hj-I" H s^^^^' ____=^..B jj===^M Vol. XX-Mo. 5 IMPORTANCE OF GOOD SEED. If farmers would more fully realize the difference between good and poor seed and act upon their convictions in the matter there would be more boun tiful crops to harvest and less disap pointed farmers. They are aware of the fact that "like produces like," and if they sow white oats they generally expect to reap white oats, although too little attention is given to varieties that are adapted to soil and climate. It is as useless to try to grow the large varieties of corn or grain upon light, shallow soil as to attempt to keep the heavy Durham cattle and Cotswold sheep upon deteriorated hill pastures. The crop should be adapted to the soil as well as tue animals to the pasture feed. The main suggestion we have to make upon this matter is the import ance of planting and sowing good seed. This means not only seed that is true to name but seed that has the vitality to germinate and grow a strong, heal thy plant. It often happens that seed has sufficient powers of germination to sprout and start to grow but lacks the inherent vigor to produce a strong stalk and either succumbs after a brief existence or continues through the season yielding only a fraction of the crop a healthy plant would have pro duced. The presence of such seed in that sown or planted is a loss in pro portion to its presence and often re duces the yield to such an extent as to cause a loss in the growing of the crop instead of a profit and the cause is unknown to the farmer. It is a serious mistake for any farmer to neglect to obtain his garden and field seed until the time of putting it in the ground. This is often done by otherwise thoughtful and prudent farmers, .after the land is plowed and the manure applied while the hired man is harrowing it the boy is sent to the nearest store for the seed. If grain is to be planted the neighbor hood is ransacked until a supply is found when it is taken home and planted without regard to variety or germinating power. If the boy fails to find the seed wanted at the store, other stores are visited or a supply is ordered by telephone from the nearest city. This is not always the mode of procedure by any means but it is the method employed more frequently than is supposed by people in general and those farmers adopting this course wonder at the end of the year why there isn't more money in farming. Samples of seed to be purchased should be obtained and tested. Not A JOURNAL OF THE LAND AND THE HOME IN THE NEW WEST. SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, MAR. I, 1903. only should the per cent of seed germ inating be noted but also the vigor with which the sprouts start. Moisture and warmth are the chief ingredients needed to secure germination. Some seed will germinate at a temperature of 40 degrees but a more favorable temperature for most seed is from 60 to 80 degrees. It does not require any elaborate arrangement to make the test, as putting the seed between two pieces of moistened cloth kept in a warm place will accomplish the pur pose. In purchasing seed that has not been tested there should be suspicion of any seed offered at an unusually low price. There is nothing deserv ing of more severe condemnation thttn offering for sale seed that is lacking in powers of germination. And yet it' is done year after year and farmers Wfl. F. IZETT. buy at a low price. Such business not only causes the loss of the money paid for seed but causes the loss of labor and use of land. Many failures of crops attributed to unfavorable season are really due to the sowing or plant ing of inferior seed. This matter is of sufficient importance to be given im mediate and careful attention. The same principle applies to garden seed, only that the testing can gener ally be dispensed with by purchasing early of reliable seedsmen. It is the height of folly to wait until the garden is ready to plant and then rush to the nearest grocery store and get such seed as can be had without regard to the reliability of the seedsman whose name is on the package and who per haps had no more to do with the grow ing or packing of the seed than the farmer purchasing t'ne seed. Look Subscription $1 Per Year Worth Two Gold Dollars over the catalogues of reliable seeds men at once, select and order what is needed and when planting time comes you will be prepared in the matter of seed, which is an important matter, and when the vegetables and other crops are ready for the table you will not be disappointed in them. Having reached home from a tew goat ranches, I feel like telling your readers who are new in the business a few of the main things to observe when they want to buy goats. Be sure to convince yourselves that no bad, coarse bucks have been used among the flocks that you want to buy. It is a good deal like tearing down and tramping into the dirt what has been built up for many years of hard labor and faithful care when a goat man allows a low grade buck to run with his fine does. A fine buck that is in every respect eligible to reg istration has something majestic about him, while one of those low grade bucks remind me of the low down, pestiferous profligate. This low grading shows plainly in the young male kids, while the kids of a real fine buck have something docile and lovely about them. Every goat man will agree with me when I say that there is something most lovely about a real fine Angora kid. The buyer should see that the buck which has been used has fine, silky hair all over his body, also along the center of his back and on the thigh and next to the tail, and that the fine long hair covers the whole front part of the neck clear up to his throat and around his ears. Most goat men prefer the long, broad ears that hang down straight, but there are many excellent Angora goats with the small pinch ears or, as they are sometimes called, quinch ears. These small ears are so small sometimes that it is impos sible to earmark such goats. It is a well-known fact that those small-eared goats are, in nearly all cases, extra heavy shearers, and their fleeces al ways very fine and lustrous, of long staple and very silky. The whole make-up should be attractive, with a graceful bearing. The head should be carried high, the eyes should be large and wide-awake. The head and horns should be much smaller and of more graceful shape than of the low grade buck. The beard should be small, the head should not look clumsy, but the forehead to the nose the profile should be dished. The whole body, as seen from the side, should present as much as possible a rectangular form.